Three new studies say that most Americans decline to use all the vacation days they’ve earned on
the job.

The surveys, conducted separately in the fall for travel giants Hotwire, Expedia and JetBlue,
differed on the total unused days, but all showed that most Americans planned to leave vacation
days on the table: from two to 11 on average in 2012.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said as much in the JetBlue survey, with the other surveys
showing similar results.In addition, the surveys all indicate that the number of vacation days
being used has decreased significantly since last year. The Hotwire survey shows a 48 percent jump
in the number of unused days from 2011 to 2012.

Those findings are no surprise to Worthington resident Melinda Pohl, who’s familiar with unused
vacation time.

Pohl, 31, a quality-assurance specialist with a medical-support company, used only four of about
20 available personal days before they vanished on her service anniversary in October.

“Oct. 1 rolled around, and I realized I still had 3 1/2 weeks of vacation I hadn’t used,” she
said.

It’s not as if Pohl couldn’t use the time off: She has a 15-month-old daughter at home.

“I thought about taking a week and just doing the stay-at-home mom thing, but I didn’t.”

Like many others who don’t use their time off, Pohl said she resists leaving the office because
she knows the work will just pile up when she’s gone.

“It’s almost not worth the stress of having double the work when you get back,” she said. “It’s
like you need a vacation from your vacation.”

Pohl acknowledged that she has friends in the office who find a way to use their time off.

“I’m just a self-proclaimed workaholic,” she said. “I like working and being productive and
efficient, and it doesn’t burn me out not to use my vacation time, even though my husband would beg
to differ.”

Pohl’s work habits aren’t unusual, at least in the United States, said Tracy Dumas, associate
professor of management and human resources at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State
University.

Unlike Europeans, American workers tend to find more of an identity within their careers and to
view working long hours as a badge of honor, Dumas said.

But research she has seen also indicates that job security is a central worry for many workers
who skip taking time off, she said.

“When we think about where our economy is today, it’s understandable that people who are
concerned about keeping their jobs might think, ‘If I use all these vacation days, my company might
realize it can get along without me.’ ”

Many lose the time, Dumas said, because only a small percentage of American employees can “cash
in” — or hold over — vacation days from year to year.

Sarah Gavin, director of public relations for Expedia, said the recession and fears about job
security only partly explain the skipped vacation days.

“We’ve been doing this survey for eight years in the United States, and even when times were
good, we’d still see that Americans weren’t using all their days,” Gavin said.

“It seems like it’s a part of the American culture to leave vacation on the table.”

The Expedia survey also looks at vacation usage in other countries.

Europeans receive and use the most vacation, Gavin said.

French, Spanish and German workers use all the vacation they’re given — about 30 days a year,
compared with the 12 that Americans average, she said.

Asian workers, like Americans, tend to skip vacation days, she said. South Koreans and Taiwanese
employees use about seven of a possible 10 vacation days, and Japanese use an average of five of
their 13 available days — the least in the world.

Most good employers, Dumas said, understand the importance of employee vacation time.

“There is a pretty substantial and growing body of work that shows people need that time away,
that people are better at work when they have their time away to recharge.

“The best thing organizations can do is to make taking time off a part of the organizational
culture — to say, ‘Hey, it’s
good if you’re gone for a bit — for you
and for us.’ ”

Pohl said she plans to take more of her vacation days in the coming year.

“I would love to travel,” she said. “We actually ventured out with our baby last winter to San
Antonio.“I was working during the trip, of course, but it was great.”